


Debt Incurred

by Rinari7



Series: Leading the Blind [1]
Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Blindness, Burns, Episode Tag, Explosion, Gen, Year of Hell
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-28
Updated: 2016-07-28
Packaged: 2018-07-27 07:51:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7609840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rinari7/pseuds/Rinari7
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Missing Scene ficlet: the aftermath of the chroniton torpedo explosion in the Jeffries Tube.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Debt Incurred

Heat. Searing heat, and she saw nothing, for several seconds.  She heard nothing. Couldn’t breathe. Something was hard at her back, painfully so, and there was weight against her front. Inhale… it tasted like soot. Her nose was bleeding. Still only blackness, interrupted by afterflashes sparking along her optical nerves. She coughed, and couldn’t hear it, and pushed against the weight on her chest. It moved, was soft, flesh--a body.

 

The hatch, behind her, the mechanism undamaged, relief that the procedure to open it was automatic to her by now. Air, cool air from the rest of the ship, spilling into her lungs as she collapsed backwards. Several instants spent blinking, regaining her sight, her sense of orientation, before she pushed the weight off of her lower body and rearranged herself to exit the Jefferies tube on her feet. Seven still felt like she couldn’t quite get enough air. There was something embedded in her shoulder, some scrap of metal. Unimportant.

 

The other crewmember--Lieutenant Commander Tuvok… 1.47 microseconds, she had to remember that, or else the damage sustained would have been completely in vain. His pulse thrummed against the fingers she placed on his neck, quick and faint beneath blackened, hot skin. “Lieutenant Commander.” She could hear her own voice now, faintly, feel her vocal chords vibrating. He remained unconscious.

Breaths came more quickly, unsteadily, and she activated her commbadge. “Seven of Nine the EMH. Lieutenant Commander Tuvok is unconscious and badly burned on deck eleven, section two, in the starboard Jefferies tube. I will require some assistance moving him to the mess hall. The turbolifts are offline.”

“Understood. I’ll see if I can find someone to assist you.”

 

 _That could have been me._ It was an intrusion upon her mission, the realization. She could afford no distractions. _That would have been me, were it not for him. I might no longer exist._

Elimination was nothing she had ever feared before, and fear had no place in her now, either. But the thought that she _might have been_ was… unsettling, for a moment, as she hoisted Lieutenant Commander Tuvok over her shoulder and made her way towards the nearest ladder.

 

It was a long and arduous journey to the makeshift sickbay, even with Lieutenant Ayala’s assistance. She allowed herself to be scanned, probed, and injected, until the EMH pronounced the bleeding in her lungs to have stopped and her physiological integrity acceptable. Then she left to perfect the temporal shielding. 1.47 microseconds. The past could not be changed, but she would ensure the future benefited.

 

The EMH insisted she return periodically, in order for him to confirm she had not developed any further symptoms and that her internal injuries had not begun to bleed again. Feeble organic construct, this human body. But she obeyed.

Tuvok was still lying on a cot, when she returned. “Unconscious,” was the answer, when she inquired as to his condition.

“But he will recover?”

“The Doc thinks he’ll live.”

“Good.”

 

He was awake, the next time she ventured into that crowded room that stank of charred metal, perspiration, and blood. At least, his eyes were open, though his gaze was empty, fixed on the ceiling.   
  
The EMH snapped his medical tricorder shut with a shake of his head. “I’m sorry, Mr. Tuvok, but the damage is likely permanent. I have neither the facilities nor the equipment to perform any kind of corrective surgery, if it could be repaired at all, at this point. Your injuries were quite severe--you’re lucky to be alive, and in relatively good condition at that, though I’m sure the natural Vulcan tolerance for heat contributed in some small degree. Blindness is a comparatively good outcome.”

“I suppose that statement was meant to be comforting. Very well, Doctor, thank you.”

 

She stepped back, wanted to find a wall there, to find herself in her own comforting regeneration alcove again, but instead she narrowly avoided falling back onto another patient.

Ensign Kim stumbled in, coughing, mumbling something about the ventilation system on deck four, and so the doctor’s attention was diverted and Seven was left standing there, her gaze glued to the Vulcan on the cot.

 

Swallowing, she approached. “Lieutenant Commander.”  
  
He turned his head, though his gaze shifted over her, darted around. “Yes?”

“I am pleased to see that your condition seems to have improved.”

“I appreciate your concern.” His tone was curt.

“Should you require any assistance, once you have fully convalesced… I would be more than happy to provide it.”

“Your offer has been noted.”

 

“Might not be such a bad thing to have a little help while you get back on your feet again, Tuvok,” Lieutenant Paris remarked in passing.

Tuvok said nothing.

“The temporal shield designs are progressing well, and they perform excellently in simulations, although it will take significantly longer than would be desirable to get them online, due to the damage to the shield emitters and power grid as well as the necessary modifications to be made.”

“That is encouraging news. Please keep me informed.” Even, detached.  
  
She let out a breath, slowly, and nodded, although he couldn’t see it. “Of course.”  
  
Doing otherwise had not occurred to her.

**Author's Note:**

> I think I've gotten most of it out of my system. Maybe one more....  
> "Year of Hell" may have to be pronounced my favorite two-part episode so far.


End file.
